Dumping on Gaia
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Claiming to protect the planet from greenhouse gases, geo-engineer, Planktos, Inc., is poised to dump iron in waters off the Galapagos Islands and thumbing its nose at the International Maritime Organization and the US government
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) London Convention (dealing with ocean dumping) should urgently launch investigations into the activities of Planktos, Inc., a private climate-engineering firm, according to ETC Group (Ottawa, Canada) and the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA - Washington, DC). The two civil society organizations believe that the company may soon begin dumping iron particles in an 100 km. by 100 km. expanse of ocean near the Galapagos islands – if it has not already begun. Planktos may also have violated the U.S. Ocean Dumping Act during iron dumping experiments carried out in 2002. ICTA and ETC Group submitted a formal request to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency early today even as IMO member governments meet in Spain to consider the legality of such high-risk geoengineering experiments. The letter to EPA is available here.
Suicide-Seed Sequel: EU’s “Transcontainer” Turns Terminator into Zombie
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ETC Group released “Terminator: The Sequel,” a Communiqué reporting on new research related to “suicide seeds” and other genetically modified (GM) seed technologies that pose unacceptable threats to farmers, biodiversity and food sovereignty.
Les semences-suicide – La suite : le Transcontainer de l’UE transforme Terminator en zombie
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TC Group lance aujourd’hui Terminator -La suite, un communiqué sur une nouvelle recherche en rapport avec les semences-suicide et autres technologies relatives aux semences GM (génétiquement modifiées) qui constituent une menace inacceptable pour les agriculteurs, la biodiversité et la souveraineté alimentaire.
ETC Group nous parle aujourd’hui d’une nouvelle cuvée de technologies du génie génétique, présentées comme une solution biosécuritaire à la dissémination non désirée des transgènes de cultures, arbres et plantes pharmaceutiques GM. En pratique, la commercialisation de ces technologies permettra aux multinationales des semences d’affermir leur emprise sur les semences exclusives et de gruger les droits des agriculteurs.
Synthia’s last hurdle?
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Synthia, the (theoretical) human-made synthetic microbe – still barely a twinkle in J. Craig Venter’s eye – may be in search of a surrogate micro-mom sometime very soon. According to a research report released today in Science magazine, Synthia (the subject of a patent application discovered by ETC Group a few weeks ago -see “Goodbye Dolly -- Hello Synthia!”) may have overcome her last hurdle. The report, authored by Craig Venter and his colleagues at Synthetic Genomics Inc., claims to have inserted a foreign bacterial genome into the cell of another bacterial species. Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith who is one of Venter’s co-authors in the research article told a meeting of synthetic biologists in Zürich on Monday that this represents a significant step en route to building a whole new life form. As the article itself concludes, “…we have discovered a form of bacterial DNA transfer that permits … recipient cells to be platforms for the production of new species using modified natural genomes or manmade genomes…”
Los microbios salen de la Caja de Pandora
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El Grupo ETC apelará legalmente contra las patentes sobre “Sintias” (Organismos vivos sintetizados en laboratorio)
Diez años después del nacimiento de Dolly, la oveja clonada, el Instituto J. Craig Venter ha solicitado una patente sobre una nueva bomba biotecnológica: la primer especie hecha completamente en un laboratorio. Se trata de una bacteria construida totalmente con ADN sintético.
El Instituto Venter —que toma el nombre de su creador y financiador, J. Craig Venter, el científico que encabezó el sector privado en la carrera para mapear el genoma humano— ha solicitado patentes en todo el mundo sobre lo que ha bautizado como “Micoplasma laboratorium”. El Grupo ETC apodó a este organismo sintético, “Sintia”.